


Banal'halam

by PerfectlyHopeless



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Massage, Non-Sexual Intimacy, non-sexual nudity, post Jaws of Hakkon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21827218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyHopeless/pseuds/PerfectlyHopeless
Summary: What will history remember of Nan Tarshan and her Tal'Vashoth lover?Perhaps not this.
Relationships: Female Inquisitor/Iron Bull, Iron Bull/Female Lavellan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	Banal'halam

**Author's Note:**

> **_Banal'halam:_** Meaning the concept of souls and memories travelling onwards throughout history within the minds and hearts of loved ones, thus meaning that everything -- in a small way -- is immortal. Buildings will remain, clues will remain of lost cultures, dead loved ones live onward in our memories. Nothing truly ends.  
> _____  
> This is the most self-indulgent fluff I've written in a long time and I enjoyed the heck outta writing it. I hope you enjoy <3

* * *

Nan couldn't help the disquiet that took hold of her as they returned from the Frostback Basin. She sent for a bath to be set up for her in her quarters as she took a brief walk on the battlements. The sun was hidden behind the mountains, leaving only hues of violet in its wake. She stared at the view for a moment before turning back towards the castle grounds, looking at the Inquisition of their time fondly.

Of all the things they'd learned in their search for Ameridan… to find that history had stripped him of who he had been in favor of a lie that made them comfortable had been the most upsetting. 

Nan kept her arms folded over her chest and sighed, taking the long way back to her quarters. The bath was ready and sitting by the fire. Of all the things to come from living among the shems, she'd never complain about the servants willingly catering to her whims.

She stripped herself bare and grabbed the oils and soaps that Josie had passed along; all gifts from a noble in Orlais. Nan had always preferred the practical gifts. She stepped into the tub by her lit and steady fire and sank into the water, taking care of the grime clinging to her skin and hair.

Nan startled at the sound of Iron Bull's knock on the door. Three in quick succession followed by two slower. She forced herself to relax back in the water, her knees bent so that her shoulders sank into the lukewarm water, and she listened to her partner come up the steps. 

"Everything alright?" he asked, taking a seat on her couch.

"Just thinking too much," she responded, her eyes on the ceiling. 

"You wanna talk about it?"

Nan sighed and rubbed at her neck, wincing when she caught a knot pressed against her spine. Bull noticed and came to sit behind her, taking the lilac scented oil from her small pile of goods. She didn't have to look to know, it was his favorite to use on her. Nan pulled all her hair over one shoulder and began to finger through the tangles while he worked out the knots in her upper body. "You're too good to me," she moaned.

"Nah, this is what I'm here for," he said, giving a kiss to the space behind her pointed ear. She felt like she could melt under his touch. "Now, tell me what's on your mind."

She winced as he caught a tight knot, strong fingers bearing down before it started to come loose. She breathed deeply and began, "Do you think this Inquisition will end up like the last?"

He frowned. "As Seekers?"

"No, to history. They…” She trailed off a bit, gathering her words and moaning slightly as Bull distracted her by gently kneading along the length of her spine. She cleared her throat and began again. “Ameridan was an elf. A Dalish elf with an elven lover, both mages. And history just… rewrote them. Made into Chantry devout humans because it didn't fit what they wanted to remember. Because how dare we be seen as people to the world, or better yet, as heroes?"

Bull was quiet as Nan spoke. They'd talked about her identity struggles with her clan. She hadn't been born to it, but when Lavellan's hunters found a blooded child hidden away in the forest, they took her in. She was as elvhen as the rest of them, but she still wasn't one of them. Nan had fought to prove herself since she was a child, fought for relevance and worth. Even if it was more for herself than anyone else.

"I've spent my life protecting and preserving the history of my people." She drew in a shaky breath and hugged her knees to her chest, bowing her head. 

"Are you afraid of being rewritten?" Bull asked as he tried to unfold her. 

"You aren't?" she mumbled against herself, squeaking as he poked his finger into her side. Nan turned back to look at him with mock betrayal. 

He smirked and let out a laugh. "I need you relaxed," he coaxed, running his hands down her arms. Nan relented and still folded forwards, but this time eased so he could continue his work. "I’ve always assumed history would get all of this wrong. I mean, shit, they've already got your name wrong."

Nan grimaced, remembering that her clan name had been twisted into her surname and recorded as such for the masses. "Ugh, humans. They don't understand naming conventions that don't fit their standards."

He laughed lightly at this, smiling as she let out another moan as he dug into her shoulders. "That's already one point against historians. Doesn't help that all the shit we’ve been through sounds so unbelievable."

"You sound like Varric," she sighed. "Maybe he'll- ouch…” Nan seethed as Bull pressed into a tightly wound spot near her mid back before it turned into a moan. “Maybe he’ll get the story right when he writes about this. It will be embellished, sure, but the big details will stay as they're supposed to."

"You really think so?" Bull smiled as she eased out of her melancholy. 

"I can hope, and at least be able to proofread before he sends it to a publisher." She went quiet for a few seconds, the melancholia returning. "I miss him."

Bull gave her arms a squeeze and pressed a kiss between her shoulder blades. "I know, Kadan."

Varric and Vivienne had already left for Kirkwall and Val Royeaux, respectively. Rainier was about to leave for the Wardens. And Dorian, her best friend, was preparing to head back to Tevinter to begin his campaign with Maevaris. Cassandra was thankfully still around, as was Sera. But their group was getting smaller. The Inquisition had been around for a year and a half, but already it was changing. Who could know what was to come?

"Alright, that's as much as I can do for now," Bull said, sitting back. 

Nan rolled out her neck and arms, humming her approval. "You work miracles with those hands of yours, I swear it." She smiled back at him. "Do I get a turn?" 

He smirked and laughed a little at the thought of Nan's comparatively small hands kneading into his back. "I've had most of these knots since Seheron, I doubt they'll be coming out anytime soon."

"You of all people know I'm stronger than I look," Nan chided playfully. 

He looked her over fondly. She was always so eager to jump at the chance to care for him, even when he assured her otherwise. "If you really want to try…"

"I do."

He smiled and nodded. "Then, alright."

Nan grinned at him. "Could you hand me my towel?" 

Bull got up and grabbed the towel waiting for her on her couch, passing it over as she stood up. 

"I've only got some floral oils right now, but some are really nice," she said as she patted out her long hair and carefully dried herself off, making sure to get as little water on the carpet as she could. “Take your pick, Josie’s care packages are never ending. Though I doubt Kenric’s colleagues at the University will take to having nearly all of their existing information on Ameridan nullified.”

“We _did_ stop another dragon from rampaging across the county,” Bull pointed out as he pulled off the leather harness still strapped to his shoulder. He watched her put on a clean set of smallclothes and wrap up in her favorite pink satin robe, smacking her ass as she passed by so that she let out a yelp. “I think that’s worth more gifts.”

“You ass,” she squeaked, laughing at him anyways before bending down to kiss him on the head. “But you’re right! I should have Josie make a request for new treats. Maybe a box of those spiced nuts you liked at the Winter Palace.”

Bull hummed in approval as he passed over a bottle of body oil that smelled of patchouli and something that he couldn’t quite make out that wasn’t as floral as the rest. “I think they were Rivaini. They like their weird spices up there.”

“I’ve never been,” Nan said as she dropped a couple pillows on the ground for him. “Lie face down for me, _vhenan?_ ”

“Only for you,” he teased, indulging her by lying with his arms folded around the pillows. 

Nan smiled as she straddled his waist, sitting on him with her knees on the ground as she uncapped the bottle. “ _Sathan, lana em vasrea nar nu’ard, emma lath,_ ” she purred, rolling up her sleeves and starting with his shoulders. 

Bull let out a grunt as Nan bared down on him with the heel of her palms, almost caught off guard by the combination of her raw strength and how she used her own weight to slowly but effectively knead out the kinks and aches that had plagued him for years. “I only caught about a quarter of that,” he said, his face mostly buried in the pillows. “But I wouldn’t mind hearing more.”

She let out an easy laugh as she rolled her thumbs up along the sides of his neck, getting him to groan as she dug into the base of his skull. “ _Ar isala ma ama, ara nas’falon, amahn dur da’laves._ ”

He groaned as she sat on his lower back, pressing her elbow into a knot between his right shoulder blade and spine. “You’re making me curious, now.”

“I thought you liked the mystery,” she teased as she put her weight into her elbow, driving the point of it harder and rolling it on the knot until it began to ease. “Made it sexier?”

Bull let himself moan as he felt the tension release and she moved to the other side. “Well, sure.” He gasped slightly as she found a spot that he’d been largely pretending wasn’t causing him any pain before his voice turned into a rumble deep in his chest. “But that- ah!” Nan bared down harder and he gripped at the pillows before forcing himself to relax. “Mmh, that doesn’t mean you’re not back there saying something like, ‘your dick smells like a cabbage!’”

Nan burst into a fit of laughter at this, throwing her head back as she fought to hold herself together. Bull laughed heartily himself, the two so at ease in each other’s presence. “Do you really think I would falsify my sweet nothings like that?” she managed to get out, wiping the laughter tears from her face with her sleeve before picking up the bottle of oil again and squeezing a hefty amount into her palms. 

“Depends on how sweet these nothings of yours are,” Bull said.

She smiled at him and shifted so she was sitting on his hips, pressing her hands down into his lower back so that the heels of her palms ground into the tense muscle beneath his scarred skin. “I said,” Nan began, slowly rolling her hands through the muscles along either side of the length of his spine. Bull moaned under her touch. “Please, let me release your pain, my love.”

Bull closed his eyes as he soaked in the warmth of her touch and her words. Warmth he let himself indulge in as her effectiveness continued to surprise him. Their roles had always been such that he put her needs first, took control of her body as a way to keep the title of Inquisitor from suffocating her. He’d never needed anything more, but this was nice. Perhaps he’d indulge more often, given how eager she was to please. 

“What about the other part?” he mumbled as she dug her elbows into his mid back. 

Nan was quiet, and she was glad his wide horns prevented him from fully turning back to see the flush creeping on her cheeks. “Hm?”

“The ‘issala’ bit,” he elaborated, shifting slightly, “but it’s not qunlat, and I don’t know what yours means.”

She smiled as she bared down a bit harder, grinning to herself when she heard him moan loudly as the knot she was beating finally relaxed. “‘ _Isala_ ,’” she corrected, the pronunciation more fluid than qunlat. “Means, a personal wish or desire.”

“That’s completely different from my translation for it,” Bull chuckled. 

Nan laughed back and pulled away once she’d finished on the opposite side, trying to stay even but starting to get tired. She yawned and laid flat on her stomach, still straddling him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she pressed a kiss to the back of his neck. “I did what I could. I hope you don’t mind the bruises.”

“A few bruises in exchange for your hands all over me? Seems fair enough,” he said, taking her hand in his and kissing her knuckles. 

She smiled against his skin and kissed him again, nipping at his shoulder playfully before nuzzling against him. “Think history will remember us? The Inquisitor and her Tal’Vashoth partner?”

He hummed thoughtfully, lazily. “Probably won’t get the terminology right, but that’d be pretty great.”

Nan sighed, breathing him in and feeling at peace. She let herself close her eyes and start to drift, letting herself savor the closeness. “It would.”

**Author's Note:**

> **Elvhen pulled from the[Project Elvhen Lexicon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3719848?view_full_work=true). Phrases are as follows:**
> 
> _Sathan, lana em vasrea nar nu’ard, emma lath_ : "Please, let me release your pain, my love."
> 
>  _Ar isala ma ama, ara nas’falon, amahn dur da’laves_ : "I wish to keep you safe, my soul mate, here beneath my hands."
> 
> _____
> 
> I hope that you enjoyed this! I had a lot of fun writing this sensually fluffy piece, I've been playing Nan again and going through Jaws of Hakkon gave me some feelings I had to write about. 
> 
> I hope you consider leaving a comment, I love getting feedback on my work. Otherwise, I hope you have a lovely day <3


End file.
